"Bringing together Top Gear and Forza Motorsport is a natural fit," Turn 10 franchise director Dan Greenawalt said in the announcement press release. "Top Gear is all about automotive passion and playing around with cars which is exactly what we deliver with Forza Motorsport games. We are looking forward to collaborating with their team to bring some of what they do so well on television to our game design process."

The "first taste" of the partnership will be revealed with "90 minutes of specially edited Top Gear TV content" available on Xbox Live and access to the "Stig's Garage Car Pack" for Forza Motorsport 3, alongside the release of the upcoming Ultimate Collection for Microsoft's first-party racing sim. "It's incredibly exciting to be teaming up with such a big name game," Top Gear creative director Andy Wilman said. "I fear we'll have to be a bit more ambitious and a bit less rubbish when dealing with these chaps."

The Forza Motorsport 3 Ultimate Collection is expected to launch on October 26--in an obvious attempt to steal some thunder from Sony's Gran Turismo 5. The pack includes all "previously released" downloadable content for the title, bringing its total car count to 500. The pack also includes an Xbox Live "content card" giving players access to the 90 minute video, an exclusive Top Gear Xbox Live theme and the "Stig's Garage Car Pack," adding the Koenigsegg CCX, LEXUS LFA, and Mercedes Benz SLS-AMG to Forza Motorsport 3.

Shacknews has contacted Microsoft for word of Top Gear integration in the Kinect-enhanced Forza title first announced at E3 2010 and status on the game's development but has yet to hear back at the time of publishing.